


In a little while

by Beleriandings



Category: Akatsuki no Yona | Yona of the Dawn
Genre: (because Zeno), Gen, Missing scene speculation, Short canon-typical blood and gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 19:29:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9672860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beleriandings/pseuds/Beleriandings
Summary: Zeno falls, searches, and finds someone he wasn't expecting to.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Speculation on what happened when Yona and Hak fell off the cliff after the fight with Tae-jun, since we now know that Zeno was following them very closely all along. Based on [this post.](http://kanafinwhy.tumblr.com/post/156865970932/abadpoetwithdreams-kanafinwhy)

Zeno opened his eyes slowly as he felt his splintered bones beginning to heal, making small cracking sounds in the forest’s rustling quiet as the fractures knitted back together. Twisted limbs straightened out, skin closing smoothly over all.

Once his neck had clicked back to its proper angle, he rolled over and raised himself up on his elbows, wiping the blood from under his no-longer broken nose and looking around. He was quite alone, his body draped across a large moss-covered boulder half set into the forest floor, the undergrowth curling up all around it in the dappled green light that filtered through the net of leaves above. He looked down at himself, sighing a little at the state of his clothes; his cloak was torn, and his tunic and trousers were stained with bright, fresh red where the bone had broken through his skin at his elbows and knees, from his bloody nose and mouth and the thousand small cuts from the whipping branches on the way down.

He also seemed to have lost a shoe, he noticed, extending a foot and seeing a glint of burnished gold scales, only half there to begin with and already fading. His hand went reflexively to his medallion, and the relief when it was still there calmed him at least a little, the gold cool and familiar under his fingers.  

He got to his feet and walked around the rocks where he had fallen, peering, absurdly, into the cracks and crevices, then turning around in a full circle, scanning the forest.  

 _The two of them hadn’t fallen that far away from where he had jumped…. so where were they?_ He frowned. It was not the first time he had wished with all his heart that he could sense his King’s presence - or, failing that, for the all-seeing eyes of Seiryuu - and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Nervousness flickered through him. He _hoped_ it wouldn’t be the last. _That had been quite a long fall, and given what it had done to Zeno himself_ ….

“Hello. Are you looking for someone?”

The voice from behind him almost startled Zeno, though its tone was mild and pleasant. He turned around.

A man stood before him, rather slight, with a thatch of messy golden hair hanging over his eyes. Strangely, he seemed to be covered in dirt and twigs, his skin scraped by thorns, with grass stains on his clothes. But he smiled the warmest, most open smile Zeno had seen in many years; there was something to him that made Zeno want to smile too.

Zeno straightened up. “Ahh…. Zeno was just looking for his shoe!” He gestured to his bare foot, hoping that his scales had fully faded by now.

The man blinked, placidly. “I see.” He smiled then, his hair falling a little back to reveal one eye. “I was looking for someone… a young boy, by the name of Yoon. He walked this way not so long ago, but I am certain he will need my help with lifting and carrying in a short while.”

“Zeno hasn’t seen him” said Zeno.

“The way he is headed, you see…” said the man, with a strangely knowing smile.

Zeno noticed that when he could see the man’s eyes, they seemed to linger on the gold of his medallion.

“…He is likely to find some people in the woods, injured and in need of help.”

Zeno’s attention was caught by that. “What sort of people?”

“I don’t rightly know, yet, for the Gods do not tell all” said the man, spreading the palms of his hands with an apologetic smile. “But I think perhaps you do… Ouryuu.”

Zeno caught his breath. The man had spoken so mildly - as though commenting on the pleasant weather - and that had caught Zeno by surprise almost as much as the fact that this stranger knew who he was. But then, realisation and memory came, all at once. “Oh!” he said. “You’re the priest!”

The man smiled more widely, bowing to Zeno. “The Gods told me that there would come a day when dragons would come to my door, but I admit I had not known it would happen so soon. Oh! My name is Ik-su. It truly is an honour. Would you like to have tea?”

* 

Ik-su’s home was small and surprisingly tidy - Zeno supposed that was this boy Yoon’s doing - given the clumsiness Zeno had seen him display on their way back. Several times, he had caught the priest’s arm to keep him from tripping and falling amongst the undergrowth.

“Ah! Careful, Mister Priest!” Zeno grasped the heavy cast iron pot that was threatening to spill, hissing with pain as it burned his palms from where the metal had heated up in the fire. The skin hissed and blistered in contact with the heat, before healing over almost immediately when he placed the pot back on the fire.

Ik-su did not react to this as most people would; he simply smiled, rubbing the back of his neck and looking somewhat abashed. “Ah, thank you. At least Yoon was not here to see that. I’m afraid he would give me the most dreadful scolding!”

Zeno laughed. “The lad sounds wise, for someone so young!”

“Oh, he certainly is.” Ik-su poured water onto the leaves in the small teapot between them, placing a cup in front of Zeno and another for himself. “Kind, too. Exactly the sort of person one would want to be found by, when lying in the forest after having fallen from a high place.”  

Zeno made no move to reply, simply watching.

“She will be alright” said Ik-su. “They will be here, in a little while. Yoon will take care of them, and their wounds will heal. You have no need to worry, Ouryuu.”

Zeno just about kept his voice from faltering. “Did the Gods tell you so?”

Ik-su nodded. “They did.”

They sat in companionable silence for a while, as Ik-su poured the tea. Zeno sipped, a little more relaxed, watching the light reflected from the river outside play in bright patterns across the wall of the house where it slanted in through the window. The tea was good; fragrant but not overwhelmingly so, dark green-gold. Nevertheless, it felt a little surreal sitting there in his bloodstained clothes - he still had only one shoe - across from a man who had grown up in the very priesthood that Zeno himself had begun all those years ago. Ik-su had seen it fall, too, scattered and persecuted and driven into hiding.  

 _And he could hear the voices of the Gods, too, as Zeno had not been able to in so, so long_ ….

“Will you go to her?” Ik-su asked, taking a sip of tea.

“In a little while” said Zeno, immediately understanding what Ik-su was asking.

Ik-su seemed to understand too. “But not yet?”

Zeno shook his head. “It’s not time yet.”

Ik-su nodded, as Zeno finished his tea. “When it is” he said. “We’ll meet again, I expect.”

Zeno was about to reply, when a voice came from outside, loud and urgent. “Ik-su! I found two people injured by the river! Please come and help me carry them back to the house, they need help!”

“Ah, Zeno should go now!” said Zeno hastily, but he spoke with a ghost of a sad smile. He half wanted to stay, to meet the princess, his King come again. To see that she really was alright.

But he knew he couldn’t; as he had said himself, it wasn’t time yet. And after all, Zeno was nothing if not patient. He knew how to wait.

Ik-su nodded, rising and opening a back door for him to leave by. But before Zeno could slip away, he felt Ik-su press a soft little bundle into his hands, wrapped in linen.

Zeno frowned, but Ik-su smiled. “A gift. The least I can do, for now. Until the next time, Ouryuu.”  

He bowed, and Zeno bowed back, and was gone, stealing away like a ghost along the riverbank towards the waterfall.

It was only once he was a little way away that he undid the cloth wrapping; he smiled then, as out fell a pair of well-made, tightly knotted rope sandals.

Slipping off his one remaining shoe - _and wasn’t it terribly worn through? He hadn’t noticed, before_ \- he put the sandals on, and began to walk.  

Everything, Zeno thought, would probably be alright.


End file.
